option. another said the greatness of america lay in her ability to repair her faults. two redirect. i remain optimistic that this great republic will be successful. i'm optimistic for a lot of reasons. i'm optimistic because of history. there is a remarkable boomerang spirit in american history. even in the depths of american

despair, i'm optimistic because i have to be. despair is, i believe, un-american. tomorrow is going to be better than today. if you lose that, my message to you today is to believe in america. matter how ugly it appears, no

matter what you believe, always believe in america. i believe this is a nation unlike any other and we really need to retake it across political correctness. barnes & noble are here with copies of my book. i more than happy to personalize them and sign them for you. [applause]. >> this past september we had an opportunity with the chairman's

counsel, and if you want to know about the chairman's counsel, please ask me. we stood at a place called little round top in gettysburg. when you talk about standing and facing adversity, when you talk about the common man who became uncommon in his values. he was not a military officer. there he stood in charge of the 20th regimen. when the 20th fought through and were coming up that hill, he knew he was the last in the line of the potomac and he knew his orders were you cannot retreat, you cannot surrender. casualties mounted. they ran out of ammunition. they were ready for one last final charge. when he said the one word that had never been said and he said

bayonets. when the casualties are mountings, when we run out of ammunition and feel there is no other force, we cannot retreat or surrender, you have to say that one word that is the embodiment of the united states of america. thank you so much for being here. michael flynn will be with us and i think it will be a great session. god bless you all, thank you for being here with us [applause].

>> now on book tv, a two or of anaheim california with the help of our local cable partner, time warner. we start by sitting in on a class at chapman university where students are studying the holocaust. >> this is a memoir that we are going to study so we can feel our way into what were talking about and also because i think we very begun to realize that to be holocaust survivor and

witness is very remarkable. >> he will be coming to spring term starting in 2011. the president of the university asked him if he would be interested in coming back as a presidential fellow for a week each spring. to my very great surprise and delight, he agreed agreed. my colleague in english jan and i have been engaged in different disciplines and the university and really come to understand him not only as a holocaust survivor witness but i was the author of some 60 different

books which encompass many different genres. it began as an adventure for my colleague and i. the best part of teaching is you sometimes get to sit in a seminar with students and read works that you haven't had a chance to read before. i think part of what makes class such a wonderful learning experience is bringing together students who are taking the course for general education or credit in several different disciplines. there are students in the class taking it for a general studies credit. so any of the things that we talk about our religious themes. also ethical themes. those taking it for history

credits or english credits and, i just love this, there, there are students who are in business communications, business majors, film majors and i think that's part of the great luxury of being able to teach a seminar class like this. it's limited to 20 students. they can really learn from one another. sitting around a table, literally sitting around the table, having the chance to have those kinds of disciplinary conversation. >> question of how to connect the history to the writings. we begin as one might expect, with the night.

we are trying also to look at the world in the message that created that. what were the factors that came together that would lead to auschwitz? we have to look at the history. we have to look at the power of propaganda. i think that leads us to think about the question of our own time, what messages we listen to, how deeply we pray at messages. i tell my students, though say this is for our good, what's the

good? for whom? sometimes they get tired of asking that question, but i think if they've learned anything, it's to keep asking the questions even if we can't find the answers. i think for myself, and i've been doing this for quite a few years, i never teach the same course twice. i'm always changing books, i'm always trying with success sometimes and sometimes not, trying to bring books together in conversation with each other. i think of a short history book

called war and genocide, it can be kind of scaffolding within which we can place them in more and we will be reading brief sections from other riders. it helps us to frame the discussion where we go deeper. in some ways, the history of very good history text can provide a canvas that allows you to develop the smaller areas and choose the colors. it all fits together. i was speaking in my class earlier today about a fascinating memoir about a great scholar of postmodern literature she is a new book coming out in may, the edge of irony, talking about